Financial Services is a competitive and ever-evolving world and industry awards are everywhere. Trophies, nominations, gala evenings – they’re moments that celebrate progress, performance, and professionalism. Let’s be honest: recognition feels good. It reflects achievement and can open doors.
However, at Truestar Talent, we believe something even more important:
In wealth management, financial advice, and financial services recruitment, people entrust us with life-changing decisions. It’s not just about what you achieve, it’s about how you achieve it.
When a Financial Planner is named “Adviser of the Year” or a consolidator receives a headline award, it usually reflects outstanding outcomes. However, what’s not always seen are the values underpinning those results.
In the world of financial services recruitment and retiring IFAs selling your IFA business, we’ve learned that the best outcomes are rarely the loudest. They’re the quiet ones. The carefully considered placements. The business sales handled with discretion. The hires that strengthen a firm’s DNA, not just its headcount.
True excellence doesn’t always make the stage, but it always leaves a legacy.
That’s why we don’t chase awards for the sake of it. We focus on building a business, and a reputation, that deserves them, whether they come or not. We are delighted to say though, that we have consistently won awards over the years for the honourable way in which we recruit and conduct ourselves in financial services.
These three values sit at the heart of everything we do, and they define the difference between “good enough” and “award-worthy”.
🔹 Choice – We believe people thrive when they feel empowered. That’s why we’re transparent in every conversation, giving clients and candidates clarity, not pressure. Whether you’re selling your IFA business, hiring into your senior leadership team, or making your next career move, you should feel in control at every step
🔹 Honour – In this industry, your name is everything. We protect ours – and yours – by doing what’s right, not just what’s easy. In financial services recruitment, honour means protecting confidentiality, managing expectations honestly, and respecting every relationship
🔹 Deliver – Talk is cheap. Results matter. However so does how you deliver them. At Truestar, we follow through, we do the work, and we don’t disappear when things get tough. Whether you’re hiring a Paraplanner, needing your next Chief Commercial Officer, or planning a merger, we deliver what we promise – without compromise!
Every member of our national team brings 20+ years of financial services recruitment experience and wealth management expertise. We’ve supported start-ups, scale-ups, international and national wealth management companies, national consolidators, and independent IFAs alike.
This experience matters. Not just because it gives us access, but because it gives us understanding…
This is because we’ve lived financial services for decades, not just years.
One of the most sensitive areas we work in is IFA acquisitions and succession planning. These decisions are often made after decades of client care, team-building, and personal investment. In those moments, everything matters, especially how the process is handled.
We’ve supported countless Advisers and business owners in planning their exits. Not just matching them with buyers, but with the right buyers – those who’ll honour their promises, retain staff, protect culture, and uphold client relationships.
It’s not just about price. It’s about trust.
And when you’re navigating a seven-figure sale, with everything you’ve built on the line, trust is everything.
That’s where our values – Choice, Honour, Deliver – become more than words. They become the difference between regret and relief.
While awards are a welcome acknowledgment, we’re just as proud of the wins that don’t make headlines:
These are the real wins and they don’t come from luck. They come from deep listening, careful matching, and doing the right thing every time.
We’ve been fortunate to receive recognition from the financial services industry, and it’s something we never take for granted.
Recent acknowledgements include:
These awards mean a lot, not because they’re shiny, but because they validate our approach. These financial services recruitment awards tell us we can stay true to our values and still win.
“I think the big differentiator in Truestar Talent is that you live and breathe the values of Respect, Trust, Honesty, and, above all, truly caring about people you represent by doing the right thing.
Far too often, we see recruiters with a hunter mindset dumping the executive if they didn’t get a job, often because the recruiter and employer didn’t take the time to truly understand the executive and their capability.
This is where Truestar Talent are different.
They are in the game of building long-term relationships with employers and executives, often spending many hours to truly understand and uncover the real qualities and values that the executive can add to the company so they can fully align the needs of the employer with the capability of the executive.
This is a huge differentiator in today’s evolving environment, helping employers get the right cultural and capability alignment and saving them invaluable time and money.”
These are the outcomes we strive for: partnerships built on substance.
Yes, when they’re earned the right way.
At Truestar Talent, we believe in striving for excellence, but never at the cost of integrity. We’ll take consistency over clout, trust over trophies, and values over vanity.
This is because when your work is grounded in Choice, Honour, and Deliver, the recognition becomes meaningful, not just momentary.
If you’re an Adviser thinking about your future, a firm looking to grow, or a business owner planning your succession, we’d love to talk.
We won’t promise you awards:
That is our promise to you.
With us, it’s built to last.
To find out how we raise the standard and live our values, check out the video on this page: https://www.truestartalent.co.uk/our-values/
Truestar Talent believe that all business is personal, it boils down to relationships and how these are nurtured and developed. Taking the time to listen, is truly key to understanding others and seeing things from someone else’s perspective is a common ethos within our team at Truestar Talent. Being named nationally as true advocates shows that we are very aligned in our values and in how we work. We genuinely believe that to help you, we must first understand and then empower you.
Read more here: https://www.sme-news.co.uk/issues/uk-finance-awards-2023/12/
We are national multi award winning Wealth Management Recruiters, with on average, 35+ years’ experience both in financial services and in recruitment, our reach is long and we have wide ranging connections across the industry. We care about people as individuals, both clients, candidates and retiring IFAs who need IFA acquisition introductions.
A review from someone who has firsthand experience of being well looked after throughout a recruitment process is everything! This is someone who has taken the time to talk about how they have found the process and how supportive it was for them personally. Nothing beats a review – we use reviews to choose holidays, so when choosing someone to represent you and enable your career to flourish, it is even more important. Check out our recommendations both on LinkedIn and testimonials found on our team page: Meet the team
We have been around a long time and know a lot of people. With decades of industry experience, we have forged long-term meaningful relationships with great Wealth Management companies and our recommendations carry weight. We actively advocate for our clients and our candidates, as we are specialists in Financial Services, who people trust. We have developed this trust over a long time, by keeping our promises and doing the right thing.
We recruit all roles which support Advisory work for clients. These include Management (1st, 2nd line and C Suite) Wealth (U/HNW Wealth Management, Financial Planning, IFA, Business Development, Investment, Retirement and Pension Specialists) Mortgage (Equity Release, Mortgage Advice and Protection) Support roles (Paraplanning, Relationship Management, Marketing, PR, Administration, Training, Risk and Analyst roles) and also Business Buying for retiring IFAs selling their businesses or client banks (IFA Acquisition).
